I recall reading a blog post from one of the many industry blogs that I follow about marketing natural health and beauty products. (If only I could recall the blog, I would quote it directly. My memory will have to suffice for now.) The author, a self-proclaimed marketing expert, stated that companies should stop talking about what’s not in their products and, instead, talk more about all of the great natural ingredients in the products. To paraphrase, the word no has become hackneyed; it focus on the negative and consumers want to hear what’s good and positive about a product. In a nutshell, we manufactures and marketers have spent far to long focusing on the no’s: no phthalates, no sodium lauryl sulfates, no parabens, etc etc.
On the surface, this sounds like a perfectly reasonable and sound argument. Who wants to hear no all the time, after all? But, if you dig just a little bit beneath the surface and place yourself in the shoes of the person actually buying the product, the argument seems to lose traction. I liken it to trying to teach a child to read without first teaching him phonics. As marketers, it’s our job to spend 8 or 10 or even 16 hours a day thinking about all of this. We have an excellent foundation about natural products and product formulation – what’s bad and toxic, what’s good and healthy. But, the average person doesn’t spend every waking moment pondering these things. They walk into a Target or Walgreens and make a decision in less than a minute about what body wash they’re going to buy.
I have really really really smart friends who don’t make the best purchasing decisions when it comes to healthy skincare products. One of my best friends is a smart, successful lawyer. She has a 2 year old son and, from day one, has fed him nothing buy organic, homemade food. (Makes me chuckle a bit because growing up, we used to exist on Mac Donald’s – 2 cheeseburger meal with super-sized fries – and Spaghetti Os. Look at us now, right!) She then told me that the only bath product that she used on his skin was Aveeno. So, let me get this straight – organic food, but toxic bath wash? But, she didn’t know what shouldn’t be in the Aveeno. She only knew that it was recommended by pediatricians and dermatologists and contained oats – what could be more wholesome and natural, right? How can you read a label properly without the right foundation of knowledge?
I believe the NOs should be repeated loudly and clearly – akin to making a child repeat the sounds of his letters until it’s second nature. But I don’t think that we should stop there. The next step is not simply removing this information from labels, web sites, etc. The next step is education our customers on what these no-no ingredients are. Let them know why they are harmful and why we shouldn’t be putting them on our bodies. We need to be stewards in educating our consumers and empowering them to progress the category of natural products by making more educated decisions and purchases.
For now, we’re leaving the NOs on our labels and placing them wherever we can. We’re also using this blog, Facebook, newsletters, and promotions to explain what a phthalate is to our consumer – from the six year old to her mother.
